Changes to political debate formats said to be data driven

 

Brian Schmidt, Chairman of the Jamaica Debates Commission, has explained that changes to the formats for the national political debates have been made based on research in order to capture a wider audience.

 

There have been questions about the need to have a team debate on issues pertaining to the economy. 

 

Mr Schmidt, speaking Tuesday on Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines, revealed that the change was data driven, citing audience responses which confirm that "the debate they are least interested in is what was the Finance & Economy debate."

 

"What we want to do is build our audience as much as possible, to get as many listeners, as many viewers to watch the debates, because, at the end of the day, the more people who watch the debates are the people will have more information to make more informed decisions on how they choose to vote," he said.

 

 

 

The debates will be held on Saturday August 23, Tuesday August 26 and Thursday August 28 from 9 PM to 10:30 PM on each occasion.

 

The debates will be aired on Radio Jamaica and Power 106FM

TVJ, TVJi, TVJ You Tube Channel, and JNN.